Holiday Blog Series: Veteran’s Day Email?

Posted by Julia PeavyNovember 20, 2012

When preparing to write a blog focused on Veteran’s Day emails (the first in our holiday blog series), I was surprised at the lack of emails in my inbox that referenced a Veteran’s Day sale. After a little research, I found two online electronic retailers that have taken different approaches to email for the beginning of November. With the holiday season representing anywhere from 20-40% of annual sales for some retailers (according to the National Retail Federation), it is not surprising that NewEgg and TigerDirect’s email programs are supporting the run up to Black Friday in full force (and even more after Veteran’s Day).

Black November

NewEgg has coined the term “Black November” and is using the entire month to promote great deals. On the first day of November, NewEgg sent an email to their entire list with the subject line “130+ Black November Deals—BLASTING OFF Our BIGGEST Sale of the Year!” To further support this promotion, NewEgg has sent two “Black Weekender” deals: one on Saturday, November 3rd and one on Saturday, November 10th. An email sent on November 9th mentioned “Black Friday” for the first time in addition to Black November. The subject line was “72 Hours Only| EARLY BLACK FRIDAY STEALS—Lowest Prices in Our Black November. Guaranteed.”

These Black November emails appear to be sent in lieu of any Veteran’s Day sale emails. On Veteran’s Day, an email with the subject line “Black November® Supersavers|$284.99 40” HDTV, $79.99 M4 128GB SSD, $24.99 Antec 520W PSU” was sent to a large portion of NewEgg’s list.

Veteran’s Day

TigerDirect, on the other hand, did have emails focused on a Veteran's Day Deals. Prior to Veteran's Day, TigerDirect had emails focused on a Veteran’s Day weekend sale. On Veteran’s Day, an email sent to their entier list was focused on Veteran's Day Deals. The email's subject line was “Veterans Day Deals: Amazing PC Deals, plus a REAL Black Friday Pre-release!” This was also the first mention of Black Friday by TigerDirect.

What Worked?

While each company has taken a different approach to promoting their deals in the early part of November, it appears that both approaches are performing well for each company. Using Inbox Insight data, we are able to see that emails focused on Veteran’s Day for TigerDirect and emails focused on Black November for NewEgg (up to November 12th) both receive an “above average” benchmark. These benchmarks take into account several of our new metrics like read rate, delete without reading, and forward rate along with inbox placement rates.

When looking at campaigns at a more granular level, we can make a few more interesting observations. When comparing the campaigns sent on Veteran’s Day (Monday, November 12th), we can see that the campaigns for both senders performed well. The NewEgg campaign earned an “Excellent” engagement benchmark while the TigerDirect campaign earned an “above average” benchmark.

Another way to compare campaigns is to look at campaigns during this time period that were likely sent to the entire list for each sender (the Veteran’s Day email from TigerDirect and NewEgg ‘s Black November email announcement). While both emails earned an “above average” benchmark, the email from TigerDirect had read rate 30% higher than the email from NewEgg. The spam percentage for the TigerDirect email was also lower than the NewEgg email (although both were very low).

Even though each company has taken a different approach to their early November email strategy, both strategies appear to be working for each sender. Did you have any great Veteran’s Day emails in your inbox? Stay tuned for the next blog in this series that will provide some insights into Black Friday emails (I bet we will have no trouble finding any of those to analyze).

About Julia Peavy

Julia Peavy is currently the Director of Partner Services at Return Path. In this role, Julia is responsible for supporting Return Path’s partners and helping improve the client experience through consistent, quality, and scalable services. When Julia's not helping partners and their clients, you can find her on the slopes, trying to lower her handicap, looking for bargains, or watching one of her boys' many sporting events.